Bella just got her first post-college, big-girl job. It is at the same university I worked for until 2016. It is an idyllic starting professional experience for both her and her employer. For her because she is going to learn a lot about the future industry she intends to occupy, and for them, because they just landed a young woman obsessed with what their group does—event production.

I’m grateful Bella went after this opportunity. She has been toying with the idea of just starting her own business, to the point that she’s even run a few events for people already. I suggested she get a job at a place where they do that sort of thing so she could learn from experienced people in the field. This would inform and accelerate her own future endeavors.

During the interview process, she was as eager to share lots of details with me, given her excitement. I was equally eager to hear about them, given my excitement for her. After each step I would pepper her with questions about what just happened. And there were lots of steps to ask about. Four interview rounds in all, a few with panels of interviewers. Many might predict this would be boring administrative stuff, but let me share one detail from one update to explain why it is not what you might expect. Bella’s final interview was with the vice-chancellor of the division she would be working for. This is a woman I knew when I was still at the university. For this interview, they met at a coffee shop. Three people were involved: the vice-chancellor, the woman Bella would work for (and who reports directly to the vice-chancellor), and Bella. Here are the opening lines from that interview.

VICE-CHANCELLOR
Hi Bella. It’s nice to finally meet you, as I’ve been hearing lots of great things about you. In full disclosure, I need to tell you I know your father. We used to work together, and I’m a fan. How’s he doing?

BELLA
Oh, he’s great! He loves his work, and his company is doing really well. He is, for sure, living his best life. But to bring it back to you, are you living your best life?

Yes, you read that right. Bella just asked a university vice-chancellor (and her interviewer), as a first question, if she was living her best life. That’s my girl. No small talk and right to the meat of the meal. And that is why I can’t hear enough about how she is spending her time, and this is for two reasons. First, she manages to get herself involved in really neat situations. And secondly, she is a great (and seemingly fearless) question-asker. Even I don’t know if her approach comes from a place of confidence or naiveté. But whatever the source, it has been a winning formula thus far so I'd be the last to suggest she mess with the dials.

At her Bella-got-a-job celebration dinner, someone commented how interesting it was that Bella’s FIRST job was at the same employer that her father’s BEST job happened (pre-ofCourse of course). And I got my break at 38, and Bella got hers at 21. Bella answered for me by saying all parents hope to set their kids up better than they were, and her getting this job at this age is evidence that Marty and I knocked that parental fastball well over the fence.

On her very first day, she had to attend a university event that her new department was overseeing. Because we live right next to the campus, Bella first came to our house to park her car and drop off her dog with me for the day. Marty hung back from going to work on time so she could see Bella off. We treated it like her first day of school and took our front porch pictures to commemorate the moment. After Marty headed to work, Bella asked if I would like to walk with her to where she had to report. Asking to tag along crossed my mind, but I didn’t want to intrude on her moment, so said nothing. You can imagine my elation at her unsolicited request.

As we walked to school, I told her how I took this very same route on my first day back on April 10th, 2006 (not that I still don’t vividly remember that wonderful moment). As I was retelling the story, I realized that where Bella was reporting this morning was the EXACT same spot I first began. My original building was torn down and replaced with a fancier new building, but that fancy new building is where Bella’s career was about to begin. Life’s poetry.

And as if everything I just recounted wasn’t enough, my string of lottery wins continue. Bella’s new office is VERY close to our house. So, on her way to work every morning, she stops at our house to (a) drop off her dog Leta (who spends the day with me) and (b) have breakfast. So my days now begin by seeing Marta and Anfer off to school, then by having breakfast with a 21-year-old Bella before she goes to work. THEN, at the end of the day, I go outside and read on the porch and let Leta run around the front yard—one of her most-favorite things to do. I can tell when Bella is near because Leta recognizes the sound of her car and stops what she’s doing and perks her ears up, looking in the direction of the corner Bella will round. As the car/sounds get closer, Leta’s stubby tail begins to flutter, and when the car becomes visible, her tail goes into super-drive and her whole body soon follows suit. This is how Bella is greeted at the end of her work day, with a dog quaking with excitement on the lawn’s curb and a blissful father on the porch managing the disbelief that life has somehow made it possible for him to still see his baby girl nearly every day. Life's riches.

Bella asked me to send her the first-day photos (above). After sending them, she wrote back, “You have delivered me into adulthood.” Life's march.